After finishing this book, I did something I haven't done in awhile after reading a comic book. I quite loudly shouted…
"WHAT THE F***?!"
After realizing that this first six-issue series is merely labeled "Volume 1" a couple of months back, I started to really enjoy the pace of the book. Bringing Silver St. Cloud back was an inspired choice, and exploring Bruce's relationship with her has been a rather fun part of this story as a whole. One of the things I was thinking when seeing her first appearance in this story was that she was going to screw Batman over in some way, or turn out to be an alien or robot or something else to try and do away with The Dark Knight. In regards to her place in this story, I'll just simply say, I was wrong. Very wrong.
The other interesting character that Smith has introduced is Baphomet, the urban vigilante that fights alongside Batman and manages to gain his trust. By the middle of this issue, Bruce potentially sees Baphomet as his key to retirement. In regards to that, I have two simple statements: Bruce was wrong, and if you haven't yet, read Smith's previous Batman mini-series CACOPHONY.
THE WIDENING GYRE has proven to be a rather interesting story on all fronts from beginning to now. Whether it's the explorations of Bruce's relationships with his adopted sons, his approach to romance with Silver and Catwoman, and even the way he views specific rogues and Gotham City undesirables, it's been a worthy trip to this halfway point for Batman fans. There are some questionable stylistic and character choices (I could've done without the explanation for Bruce's "DeeDee" nickname), but for the most part I'd call this a worthy addition to the Batman mythos, and an anticipation-builder for the second volume of this series. There's not a whole lot more I can say without spoiling certain parts of the story, so I'll just boil it down and say this: It's Kevin Smith. There's going to be some weird things that he throws in, but he still manages to stay pretty true to Batman, throw in some cool DCU character and locale cameos, and he gave me an ending that I would never have seen coming, but probably should have.
It's worth a read.
